As with most mornings, I woke up and immediately perused TMZ. Because if you can't keep up with celebrity gossip, you just shouldn't be a blogger. Anyway, I was struck today by a story on TMZ about Charlie Sheen. This is not abnormal, mind you, as without Sheen and Lindsay Lohan, TMZ has nothing but blank pages. Hell, they are even going Taco Bell by combining their two favorite ingrediants into one big enchilada of addiction.

Aside from being a founding father of the modern blogging culture (he lent John Amato money to get Crooks & Liars started), Mike Finnigan has decided it’s time to hang up his blogging pen and enjoy his travels as one of the world’s most well-respected musicians.

Each year around this time, I'm contacted by a small cadre of political bloggers looking to push something they call "Blogroll Amnesty Day." The idea behind this day is for big, important, A-List, nationally recognized bloggers like myself to give out links to small, unimportant, D-List, not-recognized-in-ther-own-home bloggers.

WASHINGTON – After making campaign promises that they’d cut as much as $150 billion from the U.S. budget, Congressional Republicans could only come up with $32 billion in savings for the remainder of fiscal 2011, a move likely to anger their Tea Party base. However, deficit-hawk Paul Ryan, the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, insisted their work is not yet done.

WASHINGTON – Having returned to prominence with a campaign dedicated to promoting job creation and cutting spending, Congressional Republicans have made repealing Health Care Reform and redefining the word “rape” their two most pressing issues since taking control of the House.

In the upcoming weeks and months, we’ll all be introduced to the new Mitt Romney. Or, perhaps the new new Mitt Romney. Or even the new new new Mitt Romney. All that matters is that whatever happened in the past, Romney is totally a serious strict Constitionalist hyper-conservative now and he won’t be changing until the wind changes direction.

Having watched events unfold in Egypt this past week, I must say I am impressed by the bravery and strength of will shown by the Egyptian people. They are standing tall against a dictatorial regime, and that is to be applauded.

First, let me thank the Undecided Voters who have asked me to give this rebuttal - which is like a speech thing I'm told and is important. Anyway, President Barack Obama's was talking last night was on a bunch of channels I'm told. I saw a little of it and thought his tie was kind of weird, but maybe it stood for something important like Barney.

Before I start this blog post, let me make one thing absolutely clear - I do not, under any circumstance, advocate armed insurrection against the United States. That, my friends, is totally not my scene.

[....] Last month, Jared Kushner announced the Administration’s support for the bill in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, writing that the six million Americans in local and federal prisons are included among “the forgotten men and women” that Trump vowed to fight for during his Presidential campaign.. “Get a bill to my desk, and I will sign it,” Trump promised. The House passed the bill this week.

President Trump on Thursday canceled a planned summit next month with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, citing “tremendous anger and open hostility” from the rogue nation in a letter explaining his abrupt decision.

“I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting,” Trump said to Kim in a letter released by the White House on Thursday morning.

The summit had been planned for June 12 in Singapore.

In his letter, Trump held open the possibility that the two leaders could meet at a later date to discuss denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, which Trump has been pushing.

"President Trump’s unprecedented meeting on Monday with the FBI director and deputy attorney general regarding a case in which he is directly involved may turn out to be the defining moment of his presidency and for his party. Bob Bauer at the Lawfare blog writes:

North Korea is threatening to reconsider Kim Jong Un’s participation in a summit with President Trump next month, saying it is up to the United States to decide whether it wants to “meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown.”

Stacey Abrams just one the Democratic Gubernatorial race in Georgia by roughly 3:1. She could become the first black and first female Governor of Georgia. It looks like the Republican candidate will be chosen after a runoff election since no one reached 50% of the vote.

Evans argued that Democrats could win by appealing to moderate Republicans. Abrams argued that the party needs to focus on disaffected Democrats. Abrams won. Abrams even won Democrats in northern Georgia with small minority populations.

Kendrick Lamar brought on a white fan onstage to rap along with his song “m.A.A.D. City”. When the fan rapped the song as written, repeating the N-word three times, Lamar halted the performance. He told the fan that she could not use the word. She apologized. He gave her a second chance. She almost rapped the word again, the crowd was not having it. Lamar ushered the fan off stage and continued the performance.

The audience responded negatively to the white fan using the words on stage. She lost the crowd with the first use of the words. Some did point out that she was just rapping the words as written.